Paper Princess and why it was actually a bad book (a review of Paper Princess by Erin Watt)

Yet another episode, of me, trashing on everyone's favourite book. Somehow, a lot of people liked Paper Princess by Erin Watt.

I picked this book up after reading When it's real by the same author, and I really liked the book, because it didn't fall into the trap of Y/A Romance. So when I heard that they (the duo that is Erin Watt) had other books, I was genuinely excited and couldn't wait to read it.

So I landed on Broken Prince which is actually book 2, and then searched until I found book #1: Paper Princess. If it wasn't in e-book format, I would've actually burned this book.

Yet again, a lot of people like this book. Think it has above a 3 star rating on Goodreads, and you wonder why I don't trust Goodreads anymore.

Let's talk a bit about the premise of the book:

So basically, Ella Harper, 17, with a dead mom, is a stripper using her mum's name and her ID. She's found by Callum Royal who takes her in because she's the daughter of his dead best friend.

Right off the bat, we have Ella who's painted as the orphan girl who just has to make ends meet. Which is fine.

Callum Royal brings her back to his mansion, and he takes her in under her wing like her daughter, but his five sons aren't quite happy about that, and decide to make her life a living hell. This is where you'd think that the love interest is an outside force who's going to swoop in and save the day.

I kid you not, the romantic interest is Reed Royal, the one who basically instigated everything. And yet another romanticization of bullying.

Also, I love the idea in these types of books that the bullies have this really grade school belief that if you bully someone all your problems will go away. No, they still are sorry excuses for humans and really bad characters and whatever you do, the readers will still think they're disgusting.

And so Paper Princess is basically about how Ella and Reed fell in love with each other. Which I do have a problem with, other than the fact that Reed made everyone and their mother bully Ella.

So, I'm going to start off by talking about plot, which is basically me grasping at straws for a few paragraphs, then I'll talk about the writing, the characters and finally, I'll talk about why books like these ones need to be put off the market and open up on the publishing world and how they'd rather make profit than actual quality content. So basically in that last part, I'll talk about romanticizing abuse in the publishing world because it builds profit and that's what life's all about in our capitalist society.

WRITING

I'm going to say this, I really liked the way When it's real was written, it was nice enjoyable.

The quality of writing in Paper Princess sounded like Don't Change by Why Don't We but on drugs. Cliché. Repetitive. And just bad.

It felt like it was written by a Wattpad author and not a published legit author. Or authors in this case.

My writing isn't as good, but I can tell you that the dialogue in this book is unbelievable. No one actually says the things they say out loud in this book. But what takes the crown is the narration. Ella is basically the worst narrator and reading the story in her point of view was painstakingly a tedious endeavour.

I know what you're about to say: Christella, this isn't that bad.

Yes, I know, but it's so obvious that it was written by two middle-aged women who are trying to act all hip again. And I hate when authors do that, because it's so out of touch from reality and just feels like something so... urgh.

PLOT

So, Ella Harper, stripper, 17, moves in with the Royal household, they make her life a living hell. The end. That's basically all there is to it. But, let's recount the whole story.

Ella Harper moves in with The Royal household, by force, she accepted money from him, a lot of money for just staying with them for one year. The only reason she stays is because she needs the money because she wants to be a better version of herself,  which is highly understandable.

Given, Callum's five sons don't take to this new addition too well and by order of Reed Royal, they all start bullying her. As I said, everyone and their mother bullied Ella because Reed said so:

Much like every book of this sort, there's a party that Callum makes her go to, and like the nice girl she is, and like the nice people Reed and co are, they let her tag along, on the strict rule that she doesn't actually smear the Royal name. At the party, she meets this girl called Valerie and they become the best of friends in a span of a minute or two.

Life goes on, and Reed issues a Royal Decree at school, and people really starts bullying her. But Ella is tough, even if she cries every five seconds, she's still tough. And yet somehow, Ella is still attracted to him:

So everyone bullies her, she's hot but no boy dares approach her.

On one faithful day, they go on a yacht, Reed and co, Callum and his girlfriend, Brooke, and Ella, because that's what rich people do.

Reed devise a plan to get Ella to fess up on her plan with his Dad, which mind you, she doesn't actually have. Plan was: get Brooke and Callum to bang, which is followed by a slight description of Papa Royal and prostitute girlfriend getting down and dirty. Plan 2 was to get Ella to sleep with Reed because, Reed thinks Ella is a whore, but Ella doesn't do it, and ends up tying Reed to a chair in nothing but his birthday suit.

This is clearly quality content.

After that, Reed lifts the Royal Decree, and people start approaching her mostly boys. She gets a date with Sebastian, who is again yet another douche that is introduced in the book only to make Reed look good. Ella manages to become friends with some of the Royal brothers, but just not Reed, and she gets revenge on Sebastian (I think his name is).

Finally, we discover that Ella's dad had a wife, who's spiteful and wants to take everything away from Ella by proving that her dad isn't really her dad, but that thread is actually abandoned.

I could tell you how this book ended, but actually, I don't know. I know I said I always finish my battles, but this was one battle I was happy to stop fighting. I just couldn't finish this book, because it was that bad, and it made me that mad.

CHARACTERS

Ella Harper

Ella suffers from a serious case of "I'm not like other girls" syndrome. I cannot express my hatred of this trope enough.

Also, her character is highly inconsistent. She is portrayed as this no bullshit kind of girl, but the moment something's done against her, she just gets all emotional, worked up about it and cries and then  starts an existential crisis. This mostly happens because of Reed by the way.

I'm also going to stress the fact that she's actually sexually attracted to her bully, and the authors do not make this subtle even one bit.

Basically, she's the wannabe tough girl, where the authors tell us she's tough but don't actually show us her toughness. It's the case of: If I say it enough, they'll actually believe it.

I see that a lot in Y/A but it was more prominent in this book. I really wanted to like Ella since I loved Vaughn from When it's real. But Ella was just really bleh for me. I don't like her as a character, but I do feel like with a bit more thought into her she could've actually been a nice character.

Also, she's a stripper, which isn't a bad thing. It's just that I do feel like her being a stripper was pushing the sad back story thing too far, since 1- she went to a public school, so it wasn't like she needed to pau tuition. And two, she's been stripping for the better part of a year now, Ella is seventeen, which meant that she started doing that at sixteen, by her own choice by the way.

I find it absolute disgusting that they could actually write a character who does that. Now, I've written a character who was eighteen and was a prostitute and even if I'm never going to finish writing that book, the whole story was about how she changed and left the lifestyle, and two she wasn't doing it willingly.

Ella is really proud of the fact that she's a seventeen year old stripper and it's not portrayed as if she wants to change the lifestyle other than her saying that she wants an education, of course.

I'm just saying, that from a moral standpoint, and from a story standpoint, there wasn't a point to her being a stripper. They could've bullied her if she was a waitress or anything else either way.

Though, her not being a stripper wouldn't open up for the scene where she decides to perform a strip tease for literally the whole gym in an attire that was gifted to her by one of the girls that bullied her.

Yes this actually happened, and I cringed all shades of purple when I read that. Under no circumstance is this supposed to be okay.

How did they feel knowing that an editor would actually look through that. And who read the book and thought: "Hey, this is quality content and not morally disgusting at all."

Also, her tough girl attitude got annoying fast and not because it was inconsistent but because in most instances, she should've cut the act that moved on with her life.

I'm saying that the assumptions made about her weren't actually unfounded, and they could be understood from an outside perspective. And whereas a lot of things said about were just plain rude,  was it really unfounded to assume that she was a slut when she's a seventeen year old stripper and... Oh yeah, GETS TURNED ON BY HER BULLY.

The tough girl act just managed to prove every assumption right instead of discrediting them like I can only assume the authors wanted to do. I mean, when people make fun of you for being a stripper and then you dance in provocative lingerie in front of the whole gym... what exactly are you trying to achieve?

This is what I mean. Her "no bullshitting" attitude just ends up making her into an even bigger idiot than she was before, when the authors were so blatantly trying to make her into this powerful, unashamed woman. When honestly, considering her degeneracy throughout the book, she should really be ashamed of herself. Like seriously.

Reed Royal

First of all, wow. The most important thing you should know about Reed is that he has a six pack. Everything else, the fact that he's a disgusting human shouldn't matter because he's insanely hot and had the hots for Ella all this time.

Reed is basically like the king of the Astor Prep, so he gets away with anything and everything, which fine he isn't the first one. I get away with a lot of things. Not as good of a student as I'd like to be, but the teachers let it slide, not because my parents are loaded, which they are, but because I'm a good student. Straying from the point here.

Why is he our main love interest? Questions, questions and yet no answers whatsoever.

Reed is a sorry excuse for a human being, and presenting him as the main love interest is disgusting.

I can't actually count the amount of times Reed blatantly called Ella a whore, or when he tried to sleep with her as a bargain. Which are both absolutely disgusting things to do. Yet this is the guy we're supposed to be rooting for.

He made everyone and their mother bully her.

Though, I will say that Reed mainly did everything he did because he was worried to some extent a out his father. Which fine, he didn't want his father to get hurt by some random girl that popped into their lives, but was what he did really necessary?

Questions, questions and yet no answers whatsoever.

Also, it is important to note that Reed fights. As in underground fights, which is supposed to be his big secret. But it's such a cheap way of painting him as the tormented soul that he is supposed to be, and I absolutely hate it. It's such a cheap and obvious attempt that it ends up doing the exact opposite of what it was supposed to do.

I actually hated him more. I don't know, I get doing professional boxing and shit. But the people who do the underground, illegal thing to me are people who have violent tendencies. And violent tendencies Reed has.

After Ella realises that boy she "likes" —who's not named Sebastian by the way —was fucking with her, Reeds immediate response is to want to bash his head in, which is supposed to make us like him, because he doesn't want Ella to get hurt and whatnot, but it shows us that this dude can get violent. Though, what the dude did was inexcusable, meaning drugging Ella and then trying to have a go with her while she was under the influence, and a good beating would've served him well. After finding out that Reed underground fights, and that his immediate reaction to anything is a)  fighting or b) making people miserable. Is he really a good love interest?

The only reason the dude Ella dated did what he did, was because of Reed.

I still can't wrap my head around the fact that we were supposed to root for him. Why? Why in the name of why? Who read this and thought it was okay? Who published this even?

THE ROMANTICIZATION OF ABUSE

I can't actually believe that I'm talking about this yet again, so I'll keep this short because I'm not about to say anything new here, but I think this trend should've ended before it even started.

We shouldn't be writing things like these, especially catered to teens, who are still very impressionable. It's easy for a sixteen year old to read this and believe that this how relationships are supposed to be when it's not.

I know people who've been in abusive relationships, one of them my sister, and it's not something that we want to glorify the way it is in books.

Under no circumstance should it be portrayed as something okay just because... There's no reason that excuses fucking with someone else's mental health. I don't understand why we're still saying this in 2020, but we're saying it.

I've never been in a relationship like ever, but from seeing other people around me be in relationships, I know that there are things that just aren't right to do.

I've never seen my dad so much as raise his voice at my mom, even when they're not on good terms, which happens rarely, both of them treat each other with respect, because they know that the other is a human with feelings and that their feelings don't deserve to be hurt by another person.

So why do books act like it's fine as long as one party supposedly loves the other? Why do we keep seeing this trope everywhere?

IT MAKES BANK

I know that it's a really disgusting idea to wrap your head around. How the publishers would rather destroy the lives of impressionable teens because of money, and trust me it took me some time to get accustomed to the idea that the people who publish our books can be like that, but that's how it is.

After Anna Todd got her trainwreck of a book published by Simon and Schuster, this trope got really famous, especially since the book brought in a lot of money. And since we live in a capitalist society, we communicate money.

Publishers invest in books, in hopes of making money for themselves, which means that they won't capitalise on a trope that doesn't actually have an audience. And frankly, the romanticization of abuse has a fanbase. Which means that they make money, at the expanse of twisting the minds of impressionable teens.

Though, I would like to say, that it's not entirely the publisher's fault for giving the audience what they want. If books like these get published, it's also because people actually want to read them. Which is honestly just really sad at this point.

So, we can't exactly pin the blame on the publishing houses, but they should know better and actually value the book over the money, but I'm not going to say that it's entirely their fault, because they simply are giving the audience what they're asking for. It just happens that it profits them too.

So who do you think is really to blame for this trope being so popular? Is there someone to blame at all?

Also, if you have any books to recommend, books you'd like me to read/review, I'm open to anything. I always finish my battles lmao.

With that:

I'm not finishing this book. Book 2 can literally kiss my ass, and so can book three and the spinoffs and everything in between.

So to say everything and nothing: I'm disappointed but not surprised.

I digress.